Numerous types of disposable containers and applicators for fluid materials are available on the market today. For example, as disclosed in connection with the above referenced related application, a disposable inexpensive and simple automatic dispenser is provided for erasing fluid used in eradicating indica applied by a conventional marker. Simple inexpensive structures similar to that system is believed to be useful for a variety of different types of disposable container and dispenser systems. For example, the structure as developed in the present application are adaptable for use with a lotion or other viscous fluid and is a dispenser for a liquid flavoring for products such as cigarettes, respectively.
The present mass market for these types of products evidences the need for the development of a disposable container and dispensing structure to facilitate their use.
For instance, development of novel and revolutionary polymer shaving lotions pose some physical and psychological problems that seriously influence acceptance and adversely affect marketing potential.
Presently available shaving lubrication delivery systems were designed for lathers. They are uneconomically inefficient for polymer lotions. Furthermore, they are psychologically unacceptable for introduction of a new concept in shaving.
Accordingly, there is room for the development of a lotion valve spreader as a tool that takes full advantage of polymer lotions physically and psychologically commensurate with the novelty of the material to make an integrated marketable product.
Aerosols are ideal means of delivering foaming lathers. This is not needed for latherless polymer lotions. The active ingredient versus the propellant ratio is very uneconomical.
Finger pumps cannot be used to apply liquids or cream directly to the face. They can only be used by first getting their contents on the hand and then transferring the lotion or cream to the face. With this criteria, it would be just as simple to pour the contents from the bottle to the hand directly.
Of course, it is very difficult to gauge the amount of any liquid poured into the hand from a bottle. This is especially true when one has just arisen early in the morning.
Transferring a liquid from hand to face without some loss is almost unavoidable. At best, the lotion remaining on the hand is almost equal to the amount needed on the face. This of course is very uneconomical ratio of product use, that is 50%.
Another type of applicator presently available is a sponge which is a good spreader of liquids or fluids. However, a sponge is also a filter. In use with polymer lotions, it would filter out some of the suspended polymers from the shaving lotion. Continued use would increase this filtering effect and would destroy the carefully balanced ratio between liquid and polymer. Furthermore, unless it were constantly capped, the liquid in the sponge would be lost by evaporation.
It should also be kept in mind that lotions must be shaken prior to use in order to distribute the suspended polymers uniformly. There is no way to shake up the liquid in the sponge from a previous application. Also, the sponge cannot be washed and dried without washing out the enormous amount of lotion it contains.
In dealing with human beings, it should be noted that a sponge picks up and retains facial grease and other materials which would be redeposited on the face in subsequent uses which of course is unacceptable and an unsanitary condition.
A final type of prior art applicator which should be kept in mind is a rolling ball type of device. This presents difficulties when dealing with viscous fluids such as skin lotions. For example, the ball must be very accurate with respect to its seat which adds expense in manufacture. The channel between the ball and its seat or retainer must be very narrow to get the required capillary feed and also to prevent ball wobble which provides uneven feed and to keep content loss by leakage and/or evaporation.
It should also be kept in mind that the zone of application even on a large ball is comparatively small due to the tangential effect. It would take an unacceptably long time to cover a large area like the face, therefore drying of the applied lotion on the face would be almost unavoidable. Of course, if the ball sticks by the drying of the lotion or the settling of the suspended polymers in the small passageway between the ball and retainer, it would be difficult to get it rolling again.
With the above presently known devices in mind, it is readily apparent how there is a need and use for a newly developed dispenser for lotions which will overcome the difficulties discussed above.
Additionally, it has become a practice to apply cigarette flavorings directly to the cigarette or its filter end by the smoker immediately prior to smoking the article. Accordingly, an automatic valve dispenser which will permit the storage of a predetermined amount of tobacco flavoring liquid and which can be easily applied to the end of the cigarette to automatically dispense a desired amount of flavoring to the cigarette in a quick and automatic fashion would be extremely desirable. Naturally the device should be disposable and inexpensive in manufacture and use.